Year 9 students’ punctuation at Year 3 level, NAPLAN research reveals

A shocking report on Australian students’ writing skills has been released amid the country’s “unprecedented” teacher shortage.

The majority of Year 9 students are using punctuation at a Year 3 level, according to a new report exposing some serious concerns about the education of Australian kids.

The Australian Education Research Organisation analysed more than 10 million NAPLAN writing results from 2011 to 2021, releasing a report on Tuesday primarily looking at 2011 to 2018 (before Covid interruptions).

NAPLAN is an annual assessment for all students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9. It tests essential skills in reading, writing, spelling, grammar and punctuation, and numeracy.

The AERO analysis found most students’ writing skills are not meeting what is expected of them as indicated in curriculum documents and many struggle with writing skills that are essential for Year 11 and 12, university and workplaces.

The majority of Aussie Year 9 students are writing at a Year 3 level, a new report claims. Picture: istock

Only 26 per cent of Year 9 students had sentence level punctuation correct and most other punctuation correct, such as apostrophes, commas and colons.

The report said the majority of Year 9 students were applying punctuation to their writing at a Year 3 level.

When it comes to spelling, two thirds of Year 9 students were unable to show they could spell difficult words consistently.

NAPLAN went online in 2017 and gradually replaced the paper tests in the years following.

AERO found there were differences in results when comparing the two formats, including that when writing on a computer students’ punctuation was worse, but they were better at using paragraphs.

Most students take the NAPLAN test online now. Picture: Brendan Radke

Other key findings were that average scores for persuasive writing declined since 2011, the percentage of students who are at risk of falling behind increased, and for all criteria except spelling the number of Year 5, 7, and 9 students who achieve a high score decreased.

The gap between low and high-achieving students has also widened.

The report authors said the findings had “strong implications”.

“For students, writing well is a crucial skill for achieving success during the final years of school across all subjects, and in working life,” researchers said.

“The decline in students’ persuasive writing ability is something that needs to be acted on quickly through effective, evidence-based and explicit teaching.”

Recommendations were provided in policy, teaching practices and research areas.

AERO is developing practical guides based on the report findings for teachers and leaders to help students strengthen their writing skills.

news.com.au has contacted Education Minister Jason Clare for comment.

Federal Education Minister Jason Clare with state and territory education ministers at Parliament House in Canberra. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage

The report comes as Australia is facing an “unprecedented” teacher shortage.

Modelling suggests demand for secondary school teachers will outstrip graduates by more than 4100 over the next three years.

In August, Australia’s education ministers met to discuss how they were going to deal with the shortage and committed to developing a National Teacher Workforce Action Plan to increase the number of people entering and remaining in the profession.

A working group of officials and peak education bodies will deliver a report in December, outlining priorities for immediate action.

“Teacher shortage is a key issue for all states, territories and sectors,” Mr Clare said in a statement at the time.

“It is a challenge that faces school communities across Australia, and is particularly acute in rural, regional and remote areas, and in particular subject areas (such as science, mathematics, special/inclusive education, languages and technology and applied studies including agriculture, industrial technologies and engineering studies).”

Originally published as Year 9 students’ punctuation at Year 3 level, NAPLAN research reveals